by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The Custer County Board of County Commissioners meeting held on February 24, 2024, occurred at that Wetmore Community Center. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda (via Zoom from France) and Lucas Epp. From the Zoom video, it appeared that only one meeting spectator was present.
In Commissioner Items, Epp mentioned that the accounting consulting firm they selected (Redlands Consulting) will be starting next week and will work Monday through Thursday on the audit and adjusting entries issues.
Old Business was next: Epp talked further about what Redlands was going to do next week. They will put in 40 hours of work analyzing the issues and put a plan together to get the mess fixed. This includes the audit issues plus a bunch of accounting problems we are having. They will then present the plan and the cost to the Commissioners hopefully in two weeks’ time. Epp gave a shout out to our IT guy, Vernon Roth, who is putting a lot of time in at Finance to keep the ship from sinking.
In New Business, Day presented his Agenda Item, Money for Playground Equipment for Wetmore. Day said Ruth Roper has been working for years trying to get a playground built in Wetmore “for the children”. She has found a piece of playground equipment from a company that is on sale for $9,281. Day said we have money in the LATCF fund and
the CTF fund that can be used for this. Day said there are around 30 children in the area.
Epp wasn’t too happy with the timing of this request. He said we just turned down two department head’s requests for a vehicle so they can do their jobs two weeks ago and giving money away for playground equipment now is not right. Epp said the state of the LATCF AND CTF funds is unknown, and it would not be wise to tap into those now. He said he will look into their status. Epp concluded saying we have several purchases that have to be made and we need to prioritize them.
Canda then piped up from the Riviera in southern France and said he agreed with Epp, that the timing for this is bad. He requested that we “table this until we understand how much money we really have.” He continued, “We had issues with the LATCF stuff. Can we wait a few weeks?”
Day, trying to salvage the spending “for the children”, said “we don’t have to move on it today.” But he added that this price is special and if that equipment is sold, we have to pay more for it down the line. (Day should have pulled this Agenda Item. Absolutely the wrong time to ask for money when we can’t even provide a crucial vehicle for county employees. But Day lives in Wetmore and this is gravy for his homies.)
Canda responded, “We need to make sure we have the money for priorities.” Canda ended with, “I think we ought to wait.”
Epp noted that he will “look into” the LATCF slush fund and see what is left.
They then decided to hold off on this until a later date.
The next item was Consideration of Signing a Letter of Recommendation for Greg Felt. This letter is a recommendation for Mr. Felt to become the next General Manager of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservation District (UAWCD). (This is a big deal. UAWCD is the big water player around here and very powerful.) Canda put this Item on the Agenda. Canda does a love minute dance for Felt saying he knows the guy, blah, blah, blah. Felt is also on the UAWCD Board.
But Epp smells a rat. He asked Canda, “Is there anybody else running for the same job?” Canda responded, “There are several others. I know one other that is qualified is a Mr. Jord Gertson.”
Epp turns the screws with, “This letter carries a lot of weight. If we are going to endorse someone else, we need to know about the other candidates. I don’t know the other candidates.” Canda replied, “I will send you Jord’s resume.” Day then chipped in, “We need to reach out and get information on the other candidates.” Epp finished with we need to put it on the Agenda “before the deadline.”

(Here is the skinny on this UAWCD Manager opening. The current Manager Terry Skanga, who helped start UAWCD is stepping down. Our very own ex Board Chair of UAWCD, local Bob Senderhauf’s choice is one Jord Gertson. Jord is a professional water guy who has worked for UAWCD for a long time (he’s their resident hydrologist) and even has his own water consulting business. He also has a B.S. in Watershed Science from Colorado State University. His resume is astounding. His has done everything you can think of re: water management. Bottom line, if Senderhauf wants this guy, HE IS THE ONE. Canda’s boy, Felt, has very limited actual water management experience and no degree. He owns a rafting company on the Arkansas River and with him on UAWCD there could be conflicts of interest. Plus, and I can hear the snowflakes whining already, he is supposedly a Democrat and the last thing you want is someone with that lib orientation running a locally powerful organization controlling our water.
Canda should not have recommended this guy without giving out the resumes of the other candidates. In fact, the BOCC doesn’t know jack about water and the UAWCD and should probably not endorse anyone. If they insist on it, they should definitely invite Senderhauf in and let him educate them on the candidates.)
At the end of the lovefest, Epp said the February 29 BOCC will be on Thursday so that Day can attend some meeting on Wednesday.